Who Said A Mosquito Can't Cultivate?

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Since I only experimented on those eight wolves that were eyeing Yang Bailian, it meant that the time needed for me to return back to the tree where I was cultivating did not take that long. Speaking of which, since I've broken through the next stage of qi cultivation and experimented with my two new skills, what should I do?

Hmm…should I go ahead and head straight for the next stage of qi cultivation? Although a little effort would go a long way in the path of cultivation, it wouldn't be enough to make a decent difference in my combat power. Then again, I'm going to devote a bit of time to cultivating since I still need qi to talk.

What about the skills I experimented with? I have no plans of doing anything else with them for now, since I'm already quite satisfied with what I've done a while ago. Other than that, having more lifespan for now isn't really needed since it's just the sixth day of my life. As for blood points, other than the need to improve my physique and skills, I don't feel like it's important to farm up more blood points for now.

What's more important right now is to obtain more combat power so I could absorb more blood without being hindered. I could possibly go two ways about this. One, I could go ahead and succ more blood from different animals and obtain their constitution, allowing me to attain the fourth awakening.

The second method would be to just continue cultivating. I can cultivate my qi to increase my constitution multiplier, while I can cultivate my body to increase my constitutio- I think I found the thing I'm gonna do.

That's right, I'm gonna cultivate my body this time.

Of course, before that, time to absorb a bit of qi.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Blank. Tune. Succ. Store.

The qi absorption session took around an hour or so, allowing me to amass around 400 points of qi, a decent amount for talking with Yang Bailian. Anyways, with an hour passing by, I could now slightly see the edges of the sun rising up from the horizon. I wonder how long Yang Bailian would sleep for before waking up?

Either way, I'll stop cultivating once she screams out my name or whatever. For now, I'll just be focusing on cultivating my body and cultivating my body alone. Speaking of which…how do you cultivate your body?

I guess it's time to take a look at the Body Induration Sutra for a bit.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Hmm…I see…so that's how it is. So uh…according to the information written on the cultivation technique, to start cultivating the body, one must control the qi surrounding their bodies and transform them into small hammers, hammering the body to become stronger.

I…don't think I can do that. Sure, I could absorb qi and let it course through my meridians without hitting the pathways no problem. But isn't manipulating qi outside the body equivalent to the Qi Actualization stage? Unless…hmm…I'll have to try it out.

Blank. Tune. Succ.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Due to my heightened perception as a Qi Proliferation Stage 2 cultivator, I was able to gather a huge amount of qi and let it enter my body. But now you might be asking, why haven't I let the qi settle into my dantian yet? Well, the reason for that is the method I've come up with to cultivate the Body Induration Sutra while being at the Qi Profileration stage.

That is to absorb the qi and hammer my body from the inside!

I don't know if it works but…if it does, then I'm a genius!

Whoosh!

With the qi I absorbed from the surroundings, I gradually willed them to split up into smaller portions, gradually transforming each and every portion into small hammers made out of qi. At first, the shape of the hammers were pretty rough and looked more like a brick than a hammer. Then, it turned into a brick with a stick stuck on it. Eventually, I was able to form the exact shape of a hammer you'd see used by carpenters, albeit still rough around the edges.

From the qi I had gathered in that one absorption, I was able to form around 20 hammers, manipulating all of them at once as they headed towards one portion of my skin. To be honest, I'm quite surprised that they were not absorbed by the other cells in my body. Is it because I'm controlling them? Well, I guess that's the most plausible answer.

Anyways, it took a while for the hammers to reach my skin as I lined them up in a row not long after they arrived near the skin. With the 20 hammers now in a line, I then willed all of them to strike on the layer simultaneously.

Bang!

Ding!

AW F.U.C.K! SHIT! THAT ACTUALLY HURTS!

Breathe, Bell. Breathe.

Huuu…damn those hammers hurt! Who knew that cultivating the body is actually a process of inflicting pain onto yourself so you end up feeling less pain when fighting? Wait a second…that's basically how all body cultivators cultivate in all those novels I've read. Nonetheless, after all of the pain, they do end up becoming extremely strong, even surpassing the strength of qi cultivators.

Unfortunately, body and qi cultivation go hand in hand here, with a great resonance happening if they're both at the same level…I think.

Anyways, I received a notification from the system. Probably me achieving a new cultivation realm. Well, it wouldn't hurt to look at it. I just have to make sure to not let those hammers disperse.

Whoosh!

'Congratulations! You have successfully achieved Skin Tempering Stage 1!'

'Constitution +0.1'

Hoh? To think that a single stage can already give me 0.1 Constitution? If that's the case, how much constitution would I end up with if I were to reach an incredibly high realm? Not only that, if I were to reach the peak of Qi Acc.u.mulation, as well as the peak of this Body Tempering realm, how much Constitution could I exert in terms of force? Is it enough to possibly let me fight against someone of the Base Creation realm?

I guess I'm seriously going to cultivate my body for now. In other words, that means I'm going to have to add more hammers that hammer my skin! More hammers hammering my skin means the faster my progress, right?

Whoosh! Whoosh!

And with that in mind, I absorbed more and more qi from the surroundings without putting them into the dantian, improving my manipulation skills to the point that the hammers I made out of qi now looked like shining hammers. Not only that, I became a bit more efficient on making them, allowing me to craft around 250 hammers of qi…which I ordered up into a grid pattern.

…

Now that I think about it…20 hammers hammering at once already hurts a lot. Then…how would 250 hammers hammering at once feel? Would it feel like the underworld lacerating each and every part of your body at once multiple times while dousing yourself in lava? I don't mind, but an increase of 13 times in terms of hammer count would definitely hurt.

I'll just try 50 hammers at once for now. Hmm…I guess that's a good number. Because that would allow me to hit myself more constantly while not taking up most of my time cursing out and possibly writhing in pain. Once I get used to the pain of 50, I'll go ahead and increase it.

For now, 50 hammers…hit!

Bang!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

OH GOD WHY

IT'S JUST AN INCREASE OF 30 HAMMERS, WHY DOES IT FEEL LIKE PUTTING MY HANDS INTO LAVA

And so, with complaints piling up by the minute as I f.o.r.c.i.b.l.y followed through my idea of constantly hitting myself with 50 hammers until Yang Bailian was awake, the progress of my body cultivation skyrocketed.

It was around noon until Yang Bailian woke up. At this point in time, I was now monotonously hitting myself with 50 hammers every time, not even making a complaint as I got used to the pain of 50 hammers after hitting myself for hours. Am I going to increase the number of hammers I hit myself with in the foreseeable future? Definitely. The more hammers I hit myself, the faster my body cultivates. For now though, 50 hammers is enough since I can continue to do mundane tasks while continuing to cultivate. It's just a monotonous movement anyway. Oh, and also, I don't know how to see progress for my body cultivation, but I have a feeling that I'm already halfway to reaching the second stage.

"Bell? Where are you?" As I continued to cultivate my body, my antennae picked up the sounds of a woman's voice shouting out for my name. Of course, this woman was none other than Yang Bailian, who decided to join me in my journey towards Red River Town, and possibly learnt her lesson from my rant last night.

Anyways, I activated both Supersonic Flight and Void Enhancement+ as I flew towards where she was, landing on top of her head a few minutes later in her screaming. As she noticed that something was on top of her head, she could not help but say, "Bell! You're here!"

"Why would I not be?" I asked her rhetorically. "Anyways, just do whatever from now on, okay? Eat when you need to, drink when you need to, relieve yourself when you need to, as long as we get to Red River Town."

"Yeah," Yang Bailian answered back, starting to walk towards the general direction of Red River Town not long after. This time though, her pace was slightly faster than before as she had got a proper night of rest. Then again, the place she slept on wasn't the best, so it's not super proper, but decent enough.

And so, with that, we continued to walk on for hours, well to be more exact, she continued to walk on for hours, taking breaks here and there as I assiduously focused myself to cultivating my body, being surprised that I was actually able to cultivate both my qi and body at the same time. It did take a toll on my soul though since it wasn't strong enough to start dual tasking yet, but it was getting there.

We also came across some beasts along the way, so I s.u.c.k.e.d blood from some of them and s.u.c.k.e.d life from some of them. Increasing my lifespan to 5 years, while I used the blood I amassed from the beasts to upgrade my Space physique by one level. Man, the first upgrade alone already costed 1000 points each, the second upgrade costed 1500 points. I know I could easily farm it up, but now wasn't the right time.

Anyways, as Yang Bailian continued to walk, it had eventually turned to night.